We reached the toppled cart last, but there was still much fighting to be done by all sides.

The horses were going wild, freaked out by their sudden inability to move, as well as the few dozen humans suddenly surrounding them and clashing with loud noises and pained yells. The kicked at the dirt helplessly and gnawed at their chains. One had its jaw locked in its bridle in a frightful way.

Claire skidded to a halt on a ledge whilst I sped down into the fray. We were slightly closer to the actual soldiers than we were to the civilian fighters, so I ran off to the left to blockade the civilians. One of Claire’s arrows whistled over my head and planted itself in front of a large clump of soldiers, electrical bolts lancing out and shocking them. Some dropped their weapons and went to the ground, but it didn’t stop all of them.

We were trying not to kill anyone, especially the civilians. The task would have been far easier if I was a [Tank], or if I at least had a functional shield, but as it was, I’d just have to scare them off with a show of power.

It didn’t help that nearly all my shows of power involved death and destruction.

I leapt into the air and [Dashed] overhead, landing on the overturned cart. Even a class like [Orator] would’ve been great; I could’ve just shouted at everyone to drop their weapons and hug a stranger.

Instead, I put on a show of force.

[Tsunami Strike]

I thumped my spear into the metal beneath my feet, and the wave of energy flowed out around me. As I’d hit nothing at all, the wave would do precisely one damage, barely enough to be felt even by the weakest of opponents.

But the tide of blue energy did the trick. No one wanted to find out what would happen if they stepped into it, so none did.

[Arc Strike]

Following Claire’s example, I cast down my javelin in front of the encroaching soldiers. The tip fizzled and crackled, deterring them from advancing. Once Claire looked like she had them under control, I jumped down from my perch and landed before the civilians.

[Shield Wall]

An invisible force pummelled them backwards, falling over one another and backpedalling away from me. I stared them down for a few seconds, then jumped atop the cart once again.

“If any of you take one more step towards this cart, we will not hesitate to kill you. Back away now, except for the driver. I am commandeering this cart.”

I pointed at the man who had been thrown from the cart when it went sideways. He was laying in the long grass beside the road, panting and cowering from the battle. I just assumed he had a key for the wagon.

The civilians protested, but they were not courageous or stupid enough to step forward and challenge me. My shield might not have impressed them, but [Tsunami Strike] had undoubtedly left a mark on their bravery. It was virtually the perfect skill for defending a point — as long as one of the attackers came close enough to be used as fuel for its fire.

The soldiers, on the other hand, were not as excited to be cheated out of whatever delivery they were expecting. I saw the three squadron leaders conversing in hushed tones. It was obvious they were up to something.

“Oi! If you keep talking, my accomplice is going to put an arrow right between your eyes. Oi!”

The leaders dispersed, and one barked an order that sent the rest of the soldiers into formation once again.

Goddammit. Do they really have to—

A storm of arrows appeared over the top of one squadron, raining death upon them and instantly decimating their numbers. The two remaining squads jumped away in fright. One squadron leader dropped his weapon, which prompted the rest of his squad to do the same.

Claire came trotting over. She shrugged at me. “It didn’t look like you had things under control, so I thought I’d expedite the process.”

I looked at the catastrophe she’d created and nodded.

“It looks like you did that quite well.”

She drew back her bow and pointed it at the remaining squad leader. His face contorted into a vicious snarl, but he slowly lowered his weapon. The civilians had scattered once Claire had showed them exactly how they were outmatched.

“Driver?” I asked, turning to find the man waddling towards me. He cradled a key in his palms, offering it up like a sacrificial boon. “Come with me. I want you to unlock it.”

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The whole situation felt like a hold-up from a Wild West movie. I wondered if the ‘bad guys’ depicted in those movies thought they were doing the right thing, too. It occurred to me that Paul had been hesitant to tell me exactly how the more powerful armours and weaponry had made their way into his shop in the workplace. Tren had been a little more forthcoming, indicating some kind of foul play.

We were effectively stealing back something that was stolen from the original thief. I suddenly became very glad that there were no civilian deaths.

The driver beckoned me over to the rear of the cart. His long, wispy beard trailed over his shoulder as he walked, bobbing in the wind like a cloud tethered to his shoulder. He had to get down onto his knees and unlock the door from the side. There was a clank of the lock’s tumblers being set, then he yanked out the key and the door fell open. It smacked into the dirt, forming a ramp.

The inside was dark. A mess of wooden boxes and their contents were spilled over the side of the cart that was now the floor. An open crate at the rear showed a set of basic armour, tightly packed so as to conserve space.

Bingo.

“Do you usually take armour in this cart?” I asked the driver.

He nodded.

“I’m going to check what’s in here. If you close the door on me just for fun, I will break straight back out and knock you over the head with whatever I find in there. Actually, give me the key.”

He handed over the key and made a swiping gesture with both hands. “I’d never, sir. I’d never.”

I believed him. It made sense to me that a cart driver wouldn’t live as long as he seemed to have lived if they weren’t a little street-smart. This man knew that when the bandits come looking for their pound of flesh, you give it to them and let them gnaw on the rest of the carcass, too.

A brazier would’ve been nice, or a flashlight, but I had to make do with the sliver of light coming through the open door. I stumbled over the junk on the floor until I reached the back, where I’d spotted the armour. It was dull, and basic, certainly not one of Paul’s, but it was a start. I considered taking some pieces and equipping them myself, at least to fill out my armour in the meantime.

Unfortunately, the gear was a little too heavy for my liking. I wanted to be able to move around, especially since my shield couldn’t be relied on for defence.

When my inspection was done, I turned to leave the cart. Facing the small doorway of light and seeing the driver watching me expectantly gave me an idea. Potentially a bad one, but an idea nonetheless.

I shut the door but held onto the key. Claire was busy shooing the remaining soldiers back up to their outpost. None of them wanted to meet the same fate as their comrades. I was pretty sure that if they all rushed her at once, they’d have a chance, especially with the skill on cooldown, but they apparently didn’t come up with that solution.

They disappeared up the dirt track, not without several furtive glances back at ourselves and the cart.

“Just say no if I’m crazy, but I want to get this driver back on his journey, and I’d like to hop in the back. We grease his palm with a hundred krad or so, he delivers us into whichever warehouse he was taking this stuff to…”

“And if the armour isn’t there, we lose a hundred krad?”

I glowered at her for not supporting my plan. It had an obvious hole, but I was hoping she’d go along with it anyway. It was our first day back; we didn’t need to get everything right.

The driver bobbed over. The horses had quietened, though I realised how difficult it would be to put both them and the cart right-side up. We’d have to disconnect them and pray that they didn’t take the opportunity to run off.

“I heard something about some krad?” the driver intoned.

I looked at Claire and grinned, then turned back to him.

“That depends. Where are you taking your cart?”

His beard bobbed as he wagged his chin and tapped a finger to his nose. “She’s full of armour and materials, ain’t she? She’s off to the Armoury, of course.”

I nudged Claire and grinned. She scowled at me and took the key, pointing it at the driver in stern jabs.

“We’re holding onto this, and you are only getting paid once we arrive safely at this Armoury. If you dump us out in the middle of a pack of soldiers, we’ll kill them all then make sure you die slowly. Got that?”

I sent Claire a message.

[God DAYUM, that was brutal. I think we might be the bad guys.]

The driver gave us a thumbs up and paraded over to the horses. He unchained each of them, whispering soothing words as they got up from the dirt. They were happy to be led over to a nearby tree, where he tied them up.

“You two care to help?”

**************

The cart rumbled along. It would have been relatively quiet on the outside, but the jingles and rattles of metal-on-metal echoed around the interior we sat in, a maelstrom of unpleasant grinding. Claire sat on the resealed crate of armour with her hands over her ears. I picked my way through a few of the boxes, seeing if there was anything interesting to be found.

“We’re officially past the one-hour mark. If my brain starts going haywire, I’ve been instructed to immediately disconnect, no matter what. Feeling good though. Isn’t the incessant scraping of metal just so soothing?”

I looked up at Claire, who simply shouted, “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

Fair.

My box-searching bored me. It was especially difficult considering the only source of light was the tiniest gap on the rear door. Curious, I opened the latch and poked my eye out to see where we were headed.

We abruptly changed surface onto a smooth, hard road. Seeing the amount of grey behind me, as well as a soldier holding a checklist in his hand, I guessed we were almost there. I hadn’t considered the possibility of the cart being searched. My only hope was that our driver was a well-known face who could brush through without the usual thorough search.

I sat back down. Claire unblocked her ears. We waited.

Ten minutes later, our cart came to a stop. There was a sound of feet crunching on gravel, then the driver walked around to the side and leaned his shoulder on the metal.

“We’re here,” he mumbled. “Cart will be searched at next checkpoint. This is the end of the road.”

Claire got to her feet, and I unsnibbed the door. She had her bow ready and drawn, just in case we were to be ambushed. I swung open the door while she panned left and right.

Safe.

We hopped out and I paid the driver. He winked at me as I placed the key into his hand.

“Pleasure doin’ business. If I see you gettin’ walked outta here in chains, I’ll be disappointed. These lot have underpaid me for years — it’s about time someone got back at them.”

I grinned at him and turned to follow Claire. She’d already moved to the next cart, finding cover along a line of the parked vehicles. Most were vacant, but we’d have to step carefully past some.

It was time to infiltrate the Armoury.